Germany has long required people who are members of a church or a synagogue to pay a tax that supports the church and its operations. But as more Catholics decline to pay, the church is telling them if they don’t pay, they won’t be allowed to receive church sacraments.
According to the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, more than a quarter of Americans have left the faith they were raised in to join a different religion or have dropped their religious ties completely. The Catholic Church in particular has seen a significant loss in membership. Bringing back lapsed Catholics to the church has been a concern of Pope […]
Pope Benedict XVI will resign at the end of the month, and he leaves behind a church shaken by sex abuse scandals, funding crises, and declining membership in many parts of the world. While the pope certainly inherited many of those problems, his doctrinal conservatism alienated some, according to Robert Mickens, correspondent for the international Catholic […]